Politeia

Published by the Department of Political Sciences and Public Administration, University of South Africa.Articles on political science, public administration, municipal government and administration, international politics and strategic studies. The journal offers the reader the opportunity to gain insight into aspects of public life in a time of unprecedented political change.

Latest Articles

Employment in the South African public sector has reached a stage where it can be regarded as being fairly democratised. Democratised, in this context, refers to a democratic order where the state acknowledges key interest groups, such as public employees, as important role players in the procedures,systems and structures of government. One major structural arrangement which has been developed in this regard is the entrenchment of democratic values and principles, such as the acknowledgement of basic human rights as contained in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996), which sets out a framework for a new democratic order in workplaces. The courts play an important role in safeguarding the fundamental rights employees.This article highlights the democratic values and principles that govern public administration and discusses court decisions and their implications for public sector employment theory and practice. Using a qualitative research method, in which litigated court cases filed from 1996 to 2013 are interpreted and analysed, this article reports that public employees are mistreated in the workplaces and that their human rights are abused. Emerging areas of concern are unequal treatment, discrimination and unfair labour practices.

There is an emergent literature on South Africa's soft power. In comparison with other African nations, South Africa possesses enormous soft power assets that it could wield to gain international benefits. However, paradoxically, there is little analysis of the nexus between soft power and South Africa's foreign policy, suggesting a lack of interest among local and international scholars. In light of this reality, this article provides a critique of the current soft power literature relating to South Africa from a comparative perspective. It explores scholars' different conceptions of soft power and the debates on South Africa's soft power. The article identifies three strands of Pretoria's soft power literature and notes that more needs to be done to grapple with the idea of soft power in order to deepen the country's use of its soft power competences. It concludes by pointing out the role of the intelligentsia and other non-state actors in assisting state agencies to grasp the utility of soft power as foreign policy leverage.

The Olympic Games are a mega-sport event of unparalleled prestige and status on a global scale. The host city is not only rewarded with fame, but since the commercialisation of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, also with the substantial financial benefits, which accrue from staging the Games. The Olympic Games in the modern era have become highly commercialised and generate substantial sums of money. Apart from Africa, all the continents of the world have already had the opportunity to host the Olympic Games. However, the host cities were without exception situated in developed countries that could absorb the substantial costs that staging the Olympic Games entail. This article investigates the feasibility and desirability of hosting the Games in an African city from a developmental perspective and attempts to answer the following question: Is the staging justifiable in light of the continent's developmental problem?

The structure of power in the international system has generated interest amongst scholars around the globe. Some argue that the international system is unipolar. This is premised on the notion that the United States is the only state with preponderance in all components of power - military, economic, technological and cultural. Other scholars view global politics through a multipolar lens. Unlike the 'primacists' (proponents of unipolarity), they posit that the United States has lost its primacy in the global arena and that new players have emerged that compete with it. Furthermore, many scholars posit that the structure of power in today's international system has become so sophisticated and complex that traditional models such as unipolarity, bipolarity and multipolarity are insufficient to explain the reality in contemporary international realpolitik. It is in this context that Huntington's uni-multipolarity, Grevi's interpolarity and Haass' nonpolarity can be located. Using both primary and secondary data, this article explores the structure of power in contemporary international politics. It seeks to determine whether or not existing models are adequate to explain the dynamics of such politics. It concludes that uni-interpolarity (a hybrid of uni-multipolarity and interpolarity) best explains the features of today's global politics.

As the outgoing Editor, I thank all the role players, especially the Editorial Committee and peer reviewers, who have contributed immensely to the success of our Journal. Much as I enjoyed editing and managing this journal, the task was not as an easy one - therefore, I appreciate the assistance offered by Mrs Martha Mashamaite, who voluntarily and without receiving any acknowledgement, has assisted with the recording of minutes and other administrative tasks. I also wish Thabisi Hoeane, the incoming Editor, well during his term. Four articles that have been selected for publication in this issue are briefly introduced in the following paragraphs.